Electra Bicycle Company
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Overview
3270 Corporate View, Suite A Vista, CA 92081-8570Electra makes a wide variety of stylish cruisers and comfort bikes designed to get you around town, the beach or any other type of leisurely ride.
t: view phone(760) 607-2453
f: view fax(760) 598-7350
Description
Electra bikes for men, women, and kids are fashion accessories. They’ve even been used as props in magazine cover shoots and fashion spreads. The bikes are hip-looking. They have colorful, striking paint jobs on frames, fenders and skirt guards, with saddles to match. A skirt guard, by the way, covers enough of the rear wheel to keep a woman’s skirt out of the spokes. Electra wanted to put the fun back into riding, but they also designed these bikes for extreme comfort. Modeled after European-style cruisers as well as America’s 1940 and 1950 around-town bikes, they have lighter materials, modern components, and most important, something Electra calls flat-foot technology. It’s a design that allows you to sit on the saddle when stopped with both feet flat on the ground. To do this, Electra lengthened the wheelbase, and put the pedals and cranks slightly in front of the saddle. Some models are single speed, some with derailleurs, and several have internal 3- or 8-speed hubs that are maintenance-free and let you shift while standing still.
Electra appeals to all ages. In the July 2008 People Magazine, Miley Cyrus raved, “This is my favorite bike of all history!” about her Electra, while AARP featured an Electra Townie in its May/June 2008 magazine. Included in the company’s wide range of casual bikes is a tandem called the Hellbetty that comes in hot red and has adult-style tassels on both sets of handlebars. The Rat Fink for adults and boys has the look of a hot rod car or flame-throwing chopper motorcycle. Girls have plenty of choices, too, including small versions of the popular Townie and the pink-rimmed Betty. What Electra doesn’t offer are bikes for sports enthusiasts. None are mountain bikes for rugged trails, and no one’s going to win a road race on an Electra or be the first up the hill in a group sprint. And that’s the point. These are bikes for everyone else. With the rider’s weight slightly back from the pedals, it’s nearly impossible to get out of the saddle to charge a steep hill. An Electra rider would lower the gear and climb leisurely, and have fun doing it.
The company was founded in 1993 by Benno Bänziger, a Swiss native, who grew up in East Berlin, and Jeano Erforth of Germany, to fill what they saw was a gap in the industry of a comfortable, stylish cruiser. Both still run the California company.
Hours of work
Monday thru Friday 9am to 5pm
Additional Information
Standard Frames: Yes
Custom Frames: No
Retrofitting old bikes: No
Year Established: 1993
Products Made In: Designed in USA, manufactured in Asia
Availability: Independent bicycle dealers worldwide
Types of Bicycles: cruisers, comfort, tandems, kids
Construction Methods: tigg welded
Frame Materials: steel, aluminum
Photo Gallery
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